My son is almost toilet trained. Why almost? Almost because he already knows how to tell us when he needs to poo but not yet when he needs to wee.
When he was 15 months old, my brother -in-law saw the signs that my son is ready to tell us when he needs to poo. Following his suggestions, we became successful in toilet-training him when it's poo time. Some friends were amazed because as what they have said, it is quite early for a boy. We were happy of course, because we were able to save a number of nappies and wipes because of that.
Now that he is 26 months old, we feel that we should already start teaching him to tell us when he needs to wee. So we can say that he is fully toilet-trained. This is in preparation for his pre-school next year and for his current swimming lessons. But it is much harder than we have imagined!
Let me share now our misadventures as we try to fully toilet-train him. Oh yes, we are still not successful! So what have we been doing?
For two weeks now, we have tried to remove his nappy every morning or every afternoon.
1) In the mornings (or afternoons, depending if he has pooed already), for about 30 mintues to an hour, we don't put his nappy.
2) When he does not have his nappy, we remind him constantly, every fifteen minutes at that, to tell Papa or Mama if he needs to wee.
3) We ask him as well, "Where do you wee?"
4) We need to hear him say that he needs to wee in the toilet.
5) We tell him not to wee on the lunge or the carpet (but so far, has has wet the carpet twice, once on the lounge, and once on the kitchen)
6) If he does wee accidentally on the carpet, we let him feel his short pants and see for himself the effect of not telling mum or dad.After all he knows the difference between wet and dry.
7) We try to tell him that when does not wee on nappy anymore, we will just buy him a new Wiggles DVD.
8) If he accientally wees on the floor or wherever, we bring him to the toilet to let him try to wee again. We tell him it's alright but next time, he needs to tell Papa or Mama that he needs to wee, BEFORE he wees and not AFTER, which he now does.
We're not yet frustrated or anxious that after two weeks of trying we are still not successful. We are enjoying the misadventures of toilet training. We know that after this toilet training on daytime, we still need to toilet train him when he goes to sleep at night-- no bed-wetting on night time. Another challenging task ahead of us! It takes time, yes, we know that. That is why we believe that in due time, he will be mature enough and ready to wee on his own, like when he does when he poo.
So now, on with our misadventures.
